


Something About You

by mcmachine



Series: Missed Moments [8]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 11:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14715164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmachine/pseuds/mcmachine
Summary: Set somewhere between 12x06 and 12x07. Jackson doesn't like the rumors about Riggs and his wife.





	Something About You

**_ JACKSON _ **

"It's not true, is it?" Karev asked as he stepped up next to me by the coffee cart.

"What's not true?" I asked, turning halfway to face him and tucking my hands into my lab coat pockets.

"Kepner slept with the new guy. Riggs." He stated bluntly.

I nearly choked mid-sip of my cappuccino at the comment. The close relationship that April and Riggs already had established had caught me by surprise. Maybe it made sense with the ways things were over there, but my entire view on her time in Jordan was soured by the fact that she seemed to care more about being and working over there than she actually did about me or our marriage. Even so, as bitter as I may have been about it, cheating had been the last thing on my mind. Apparently, that wasn't the case for everyone else.

"You serious?" I questioned him, both my eyebrows asking. Even if I'd known her a few years longer, I still figured that at least he and a few others would have known her better than to ask that.

Alex shrugged his shoulders, turning away to grab his own coffee once it was ready. "Figured I may as well ask. Everyone in the hospital's talking about it. Jo told me."

"Wow," I ran my hand over my face, shaking my head. "C'mon, it's April. She wouldn't. You know that."

"Figured I'd at least ask. It's gonna be awhile before people shut up on something like that." He replied.

Hospital gossip was always a given and while I usually tried to pay no mind to it and let it die down on its own accord, this was something that was going to be significantly harder for me to ignore.

Despite my faith in her, it had been a little weird to watch the two of them interact with each other like they had known each other their whole lives when realistically, it couldn't have been more than few months. He certainly didn't seem to mind being in her personal space and they'd been attached at the hip from the moment that he had shown up. And admittedly, Riggs had championed for her when I had my own doubts about trying the patient that she had brought in from Jordan. He had given her some faith and gratitude that I had not. In hindsight, I feel a little guilty about that. It probably didn't help to examine the rumors.

But April had come back with the expectations that things between us would be fine. That they could go back to right and dandy like nothing had happened like she hadn't abandoned me for a second time when I had begged her not to. I had been the one to say when she walked out to say we were done, not her. She was a good woman, at her core. Not the type who would throw away vows like that.

"Yeah, well, they need to shut up." I took another sip from my coffee. "It's a load of bullshit."

"Good luck with that," Alex remarked with a loud snort. Before he or I could say anything further, his pager went off and he pulled it off with a frown ass he read it. "Gotta go. Kepner paged 911."

I let him go with a nod of my head, sighing before heading back inside of the hospital again. It made me a little more cognizant of what people around me were saying, mostly listing for either April or Riggs' name coming from each other's mouth. I didn't want to bring it up and seem overly involved, but I sure as hell didn't want to hear other people talking about it. I would shut them up if I could.

But what I don't get is overhearing nurses or interns talking about them, and the chance to tell them off. Instead after a few minutes, with a little extra time on my hands, I make my way down to the E.R., just to see if there's anything there that might need my hands.

Of course, in the instant I want there to be something, there's not.

What I find instead is April tossing off a bloody trauma gown with Riggs right there by her side, following her lead. I groaned internally. It seemed like he'd gotten quite comfortable with his place here already.

Too far away to hear exactly what they were saying, whatever it was, it made April burst out with laughter and a huge smile crack across her face. She slapped at his arm playfully and he nudged her right back without missing a beat. It reminded me a little bit of the past, of better times between the two of us, when we could laugh and play with each other without having to think about everything else that was hanging over us.

Of course, that had all changed after Samuel. She had changed. Her light had gone off and so had mine. But instead of working through it together like couples were supposed to, she had un halfway across the world. At least when she came back, she had changed. I'd thought it was for the better, but it seemed like she was only better because she had been without me. She had been able to avoid the truth. I had to live with it every single day that she was gone, that I had lost not only my son, but I had lost her, too. I'd been alone every moment along the way. FaceTime could only account for so much.

Stretching out my fingers and curling my hands into fists again, I suck in a deep breath through my nose and resist the urge to go up and interrupt. I don't have a reason to. It's not like things had been great between me and April lately. I couldn't ignore the way that she had hurt me, not the way that she seemed eager to.

It wasn't possible that she would hurt me in the way that people were talking about, though, at least that was something that I could be sure of. Sex was one of those things she'd always been wound up about. She wouldn't go and do something completely crazy like that.

But no matter how many times I can try to tell myself that, the surge of jealousy nearly turned me green. I'm her husband. I'm the only man that she's ever been with. I might have thrown out the divorce word because of the whole situation that we had found ourselves in, but none of that had actually happened. She was still my wife. I hated the thought of anyone being with her in the way that I had. And yeah, it made me jealous to think that someone else was making her laugh and smile in the way that I should have been, especially when we were on the fritz.

"Everything alright, Avery?" Hunt asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I stuttered back stupidly.

"You look like you're about ready to murder someone," he commented with one eyebrow quirked up into his forehead. I took a deep breath and sighed it out, knowing that there was a good chance he was right. "You heard the rumors, didn't you?"

Didn't take much to figure that out. I nodded my head.

"I don't believe it for a minute. April's not like that. I know that. You know that. It's just hospital gossip." He spoke calmly. I knew he was just trying to relax me, but it wasn't any assumptions or conclusions that I couldn't already draw on my own.

"I know," I agreed with a slight nod of the head. "But I don't like people talking about her that way. And I don't know how I feel about this Riggs guy. He does seem pretty cozy with her."

Hunt grunted in agreement. "I wouldn't trust him."

"Sounds like there's something more there," I remarked, focusing my attention on him a little more. If there was something additional that he knew about this guy, now was the right time to try and pry for that kind of information. The more that I knew, the better.

"We worked together overseas," he answered without offering much more explanation. There's a disgruntled expression on his face as he too watched April and Riggs together. The two of them were just chatting now, side by side, but she's still smiling like he's the most brilliant thing she's dealt with all day. Definitely, the last thing I want to see.

"I gotta go check on my patients, but uh, keep an eye on her, alright?" Even if I hadn't been a fan of Owen when he'd taken her over, I knew that he at least had some of her best interests in mind. It was a bonus that he didn't seem to like the new guy any more than I did.

Heading upstairs to round on a few of the patients currently in the burn unit, I still can't manage to get my thoughts off of her. Maybe it had been a dick move to move out so suddenly without telling her. She had said to my face that being stubborn could be the worst thing for a person. Well, it'd been to a patient, but the way that she had looked at me made it very clear that she wasn't talking just about that.

Then at the dinner party, the way that she had talked about mistakes. It'd been in conjunction with Penny, with the patient that she had accidentally killed years ago when we had first come to this particular hospital before it had been renamed Grey Sloan Memorial. But when she'd been standing that close to me, that forlorn look on her face, I knew it had been just more than that. She could take the blame for it in front of a group of people, but she couldn't do it one on one. She couldn't apologize. Couldn't or wouldn't. It was hard to tell which was the truth. Yet she was still so beautifully kind and warm, despite the lies, despite the things that hadn't been said and should have been.

I still wanted her. Every bit of her.

By the end of the day, the thoughts had been eating away inside of my head all day, and I'm sick and tired of it. It's pure misfortune that I caught one of the nurses working on the burn unit talking about the rumors.

"Excuse me." I cleared my throat as I interrupted them.

Both of the nurses looked startled. "Yes, Dr. Avery?" The older of the two asked.

"Dr. Kepner is my wife and one of the most talented surgeons in this hospital. You should know better than to disrespect her with that kind of high school gossip. I will not allow that kind of chatter about her or anyone else on this floor. Do you understand?" I barked at them.

"Yes, Dr. Avery." The younger responded immediately, looking down with clear shame on her face. I doubt she regretted a thing she said, only that she had been caught. That was normally how something like this went.

"Of course, Dr. Avery." The other echoed a moment later.

Both of them stared up at me like they were expecting some kind of further reprimanding from me. There's more on my mind, but I know there's no point in taking it out on them. They weren't the only ones talking about it and just because the two of them were shut up about it for a moment didn't mean the rest of the rumors were going to disappear. I'm sure they weren't the ones who had started it, either.

"Get back to work," I ordered them, turning on my heel sharply and leaving them be.

Done for the night, I headed upstairs to the attending's lounge without overhearing any more about it, much to my own relief. I didn't know if April was aware of the rumors herself, but I'm sure that someone like Karev or Arizona was bound to bring it up to her. Something of that nature definitely wouldn't stay on the quiet side for long.

Stepping inside and shrugging off my lab coat, I'm relieved when I see a peak of long red hair from the corner of my eye. I'd been hoping to talk to her all day and it's much better to see her without Riggs right by her side.

"Hey," I greeted her with a gentle smile.

Even if we had been a bit on the outskirts, I had one thing to thank Riggs for. He had brought Kamal here. Being able to save the little boy's life and hands had put a spark between the two of us again. He would still need a few more follow up surgeries, but he was going to keep his hands. I knew that April was thrilled that I'd been able to save them after officially recommending amputation. That restart to our connection had been exactly what the both of us needed at the moment, even if we hadn't gotten a night together after it like I had wanted.

"Hi, Jackson," April smiled at me. "Did you have a good day?" She asked. It's a little weird being here, finishing up at the end of the day, and knowing that we're not going home together.

"Yeah, a bit boring," I answered with a slight nod of the head. "What about you?"

"Good. The E.R. kept me pretty busy today. Lots of incomings but not all of them ended up being surgical cases," she replied.

"Yeah, I popped my head down there for a few minutes. Saw you working with Riggs." I leave the comment at that, not wanting to sound overly suspicious or accusatory in the tone. But I do glance at her to read the expression on her face when I bring it up. She doesn't look bothered by it, features remaining just as perky as they were before. She gave a nod of her head but when she doesn't offer a continued verbal response, I continue to speak. "Seems like you guys have been spending a lot of time together."

April gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Yeah, it's been nice to catch up with him. He's an amazing surgeon, really. He's been all around the world, done so much crazy stuff. And he's a good guy, too. I think you'd like him a lot if you hung out with him." She spoke casually.

"Uh huh." I'm not sure I actually believed that, but I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. "Seems like you know him really well."

"I do." She answered simply. "You've heard about all of those rumors, haven't you? Arizona said she's been trying to shut them down. She suggested if anything, maybe it was Hunt and Riggs having the affair. All that pent-up tension, or whatever." Laughter rumbled from her lips easily on the matter, clearly unbothered by it now.

"Yeah, I have," I admitted, running my hand over my head. "Can't say I'm a fan of them."

"I wouldn't expect you to be," April smoothed a hand over her hair as she took a few steps to me, hazel hues looking up at me with a mixture of sympathy and entertainment sparkling inside of them. She always had beautiful, expressive eyes. This was no different. "You're my husband."

"I am." I agreed with a small nod of the head.

The words were easy to say, but neither of us had been acting much like a married couple since she had come back from Jordan. I may have started it, but things had been tense enough to contribute from and to the both of us. It was a two-way street. Maybe I was putting up a few more blockades in the road than she was, but the way that she looked at me, that softness there… it's enough for a few of them to come toppling down again, out of my control entirely.

"I am going to stay at Ben and Bailey's tonight," I can already see the hurt on her face as I begin to speak. "But I think that maybe tomorrow, we should go and have dinner together. Sit down, talk, just… figure out where we are." I explained, seeing her soften some.

"I think that's a good idea." A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I'd like that a lot." April echoed.

"I will make some reservations for us then. We can go to your favorite place." Just one thing to make things a little easier, a little more natural between the two of us. We could both use the boost.

"Great. I'll see you tomorrow, Jackson." April chirped.

I bent down, kissing her cheek softly. "See you tomorrow."


End file.
